Speed, speed,speed; Accuracy, accuracy, accuracy

The headline is a probably misremembered motto that Joseph Pulitzer posted in his newsrooms during an earlier era of round the clock competition for news.

Speed and accuracy are still what it's all about in the 24/7 digital world, forcing journalists to think about how to be fast without being wrong. A thoughtful discussion of the risks of journalistic speeding (and you thought only driving fast could kill you) was prompted by this column from the public editor at the New York Times. The column criticized a story on the paper's web site that included a vicious attack on Caroline Kennedy after she withdrew her bid for an appointment to a vacant U.S. senate seat.

The column prompted this response from two journalists at the Times who spend each day in the trenches trying to balance the need for speed and the need to get it right. Some money quotes from editor Jon Landman's response:

To start, it’s just plain wrong to say that ‘print deadlines are established, and journalists work all day toward them.’ They only work all day if they have all day.

And this:

Of course working fast increases the chance of error and clearly that is a danger to acknowledge seriously and address carefully. But absence of error isn’t the only value... Speed is a value too. Speed gets information to people when they want it and need it.

And this from correspondent Adam Nagourney:

My own personal feeling is that it is important to be first on stuff; it’s just in my blood. That said, to me...being first is not as important a service to our readers as providing in-depth, well-reported and well-edited stories that hopefully help them understand what is happening, particularly in this world with such a clutter of information and opinions. I’d be lying to you if I said that the amount of time we spent keeping up on the daily stuff—or posting updates during the day – didn’t distract from our ability to deliver that kind of journalism. It does.

Of course, the public editor gave himself the last word in a column last Sunday. It includes a fascinating glimpse inside the newsroom when a plane crashed in the Hudson River, yet another illustration of why being a journalist is just about the best job in the world.